NIILM CMS India - NIILM Cms (Centre for Management Studies) is ranked among India 's premier business schools. NIILM-CMS has made rapid strides over the year and is today counted among the top business schools in the country.

Sunday, 28 April 2013

Dove's new campaign about how women are more beautiful than they actually think they areWomen are their own worst beauty critics. Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful. Dove wants to create a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. So, the brand decided to conduct a compelling social experiment that explores how women view their own beauty in contrast to what others see.

Wednesday, 17 April 2013

Prof. Kumar is a faculty in the area of IT at NIILM CMS. He can be contacted at manjeet@niilm.com

Soft
computing is the state-of-the-art approach to artificial intelligence, and it
mainly comprises fuzzy logic, neural networks and probabilistic reasoning. It
aims at mimic human reasoning particularly in computer milieu, and hence in
practice, the Soft computing systems are adaptive and intelligent in nature.

Soft
computing has also a user friendly Interface in the world of computing.

The
main constituents of soft computing are-

·Fuzzy systems or
Impression

·Neural Networks
or Learning

·Probalostic
Reasoning or uncertainty

·Evolutionary
Computing or optimization

Fuzzy Systems

A
fuzzy system is a system based on
fuzzy logic - a mathematical system that analyzes analog input values in terms
of logical variables that take on continuous values between 0 and 1, in
contrast to classical or digital logic, which operates on discrete values of
either 0 and 1 (true and false).

The
main Function of Fuzzy logic is to deal with Imprecision and Uncertainity.It
also deals with imprecise entities in automotive environments. It is based on
fuzzy sets and Fuzzy logic.

An Artificial Neural
Network (ANN) is an information processing paradigm that is inspired by the way
biological nervous systems, such as the brain, process information. The key
element of this paradigm is the novel structure of the information processing
system. An ANN is configured for a specific application, such as pattern
recognition or data classification, through a learning process.

Probabilistic
reasoning

In
a probalistic neural network (Bayesian learning) probality is used to represent
uncertainty about the relationship being learned. Before any data is seen the
prior opinion about what the true relationship might be can be expressed in a
probality distribution over the network weights that define this relationship.

Therefore
proballistic reasoning is done to make a solution of an uncertainty using a
Bayesian Network.

Evolutionary
Computing

Evolutionary computing is the field of
study devoted to the design, development, and analysis of problem solvers based
on natural selection. It is the field which is based on the study of techniques
used for problem solving like its development, design and analysis.

Advantages of
soft Computing

*models
based human reasoning

*models
can be

-linguistic

-simple

-comprehensive

-fast
when computing

-good
practices

Soft Computing
Today

1.Computing
with words(CW)

2.Theory
of information granulation(TFIG)

3.Computation
theory of perceptions(CTP)

Possible Soft
computing data and operations

1.Numeric
data: 5, about 5, 5 to 6, about 5 to 6

2.Linguist
data: Cheap, very big, not high, medium or bad.

3.Functions
and relations: F(x), about f(x), fairly similar, much greater.

Conclusion

We
hereby conclude that the soft computing method is the only way to compute in
better and accurate way as it is more suitable than hard computing.

He is an M.Tech in IT and has a work experience of more than 8 years. He had worked in various fields like research, consultancy and academics.. He has several professional trainings in Information Technology. His research area includes Data Mining, Web Technology, ERP, Operating System, TQM. He Published 10 papers in National Conference/Seminar and 4 Papers in International Journal.

E-commerce
will soon become everything from something. We are witnessing how the line
between e-commerce and store retailing is gradually fading, and by and by
e-commerce and online retailing is just becoming a natural part of retailing.
The consequences are huge as a USD 500 billion online world is transformed into
a USD 8–10 trillion global retail market.

This generates a lot of questions
about what form of retailing will evolve in the future. What role will
bricks-and-mortar stores take up? What business models will be flourishing? Who
will endure the technological onslaught and who might perish? But for sure; the
world of retail will look very different a decade onwards.Retail sales in the US and many
European markets are still below the levels seen before the onset of the
financial crisis in 2008. Moreover, labor costs in China are increasing rapidly
while the price of oil and other raw materials has soared. This has created an
environment in which retailers are competing within a shrinking space looking
for answers to procurement options, geopolitical scenarios and scalable
formats.There is a slugfest amongst
retailers with different formats to gain market shares and to push competitors
out by attracting customers either with better value for money (substantial
discounts) or convenience. And with the online commerce thriving, the idea is
that you need not big to succeed. Ebay and Amazon have brought retailers like
Target and Comet on their toes. The double-digit growth of online retail sales
seen in U.S. and other places is part of this change. Online retail is evidently
growing at the cost of traditional retail outlets. The reality that this is
happening at a time when the industry is under pressure is likely to expedite
the metamorphosis that is already happening. This is not just a simple question
about e-commerce replacing traditional stores, but a complex process involving
several interacting trends.

The drivers of change include a concoction
of deleverage and prudence in the face of lower economic growth, demographic
change and shifting consumer behavior and expectations, combined with new
technology and social innovations. With an unprecedented level of entropy and
dynamism retailers can look forward to these change drivers to plan their
future strategies:

·Aging and tech savvy.

·JIT - Just In Time even for personal consumption.

·Always online.

·Mobile retailing.

·Social commerce.

·Multichannel or Omnichannel world.

But it is certain that in order to survive disruption, managers of
legacy businesses need to know the game to be a part of the changing game. And
probably knowing these drivers would equip them in a better way.

*Dr. Mohit Maurya

A PhD in Retail Management, Dr. Maurya has an experience of more than a decade in academics, corporate training and consulting. Some of his previous associations were with Indian Retail School, Siddaganga Institute of Technology, Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies and ICFAI University. He has also worked for Jubilant Organosys Ltd. He has trained over 200 executives of various companies like JSW Steel Limited, Trident Powercraft Private Limited, GMR Infrastructure, Adecco India, Seminis, Monsanto Agro, Kirloskar Brothers Limited, Kirloskar Oil Engines Limited, Kirloskar Pneumatic Co.ltd, Kirloskar Ebara Pumps Limited, etc. His consulting interests are in Negotiation Skills, Sales & Distribution Management and Services Marketing, while his research interests are in Organized Retailing and Virtual Marketing.

Market segmentation in the watch industry is
gathering speed. India’s leading watchmaker, Titan is sprucing up the emotional
connect it has with customers by giving aggressive brand identities to various
products in its portfolio. Its advertisement campaign for FasTrack - ‘Are You
On It?’ - carries the first vignettes of branding for this aspirational product
range targeted at the youth. The storyboard centers around a Formula-1 racer
who gets out of the party groove in time to join Narain Karthikeyan, India’s
most celebrated figure on the racing tracks, for a training session in the
evening. Karthikeyan’s presence in the commercial is incidental given the
context. But, India’s top racing driver is the brand ambassador for the Tatas,
who hold a majority stake in Titan Industries Ltd.

After 15 years of signature campaigns
centering around Titan, which built a formidable house brand, the winds of
change are blowing. The product labels within the Titan umbrella are slowly
gaining distinct identities in an obvious attempt to accommodate the changed
demographic compulsions and market dynamics. Titan has a set of product labels
catering to different market segments, which can script their own brand
stories. Currently, the Titan umbrella has well-established product categories
such as Edge, Steel, Dash, Nebula, Classique, Royal, Regalia and, of course,
FasTrack.

There is a reason why the brand story has
been scripted for FasTrack. Titan, which is 15-years-old as a brand, has moved
up the age spectrum. Many Titan customers have now become parents. Their
children respect Titan, but they do not buy the brand. Titan is aware of the
trap and is strategizing to attract new customers in the market. It is on a
contemporarising mission. So, FasTrack
is being positioned to bring the new and young Indian customer into the company
fold. This would provide an opportunity to convert them into “classic Titan
customers” in the long run. FasTrack is the fashionable face of Titan. And it
is now building an identity for itself unlike Classique or Royal. The company
has identified the youth segment - youth by age and youth by attitude - aged
between 18 and 30 years, as the core audience of FasTrack. These customers are
bold, individualistic, non-conformist and fashionable. It marks FasTrack’s
growth from being a product category to a sub-brand of Titan.

FasTrack first hit the market as ‘Cool
Watches’ from Titan. It came with a frosted steel look and was targeted at
customers in the age bracket of 22-30 years. In later years, FasTrack’s focus
shifted further down the age spectrum, to those between 15 years and in their
early 20s. This resulted in the Digital Collection (communicated as ‘Too Sexy
For Your Wrist’) that included big, bold and techno-kind of watches. Later, it
came out with the Fashion Collection, mainly aimed at wooing more female
customers. The latest ‘Are You On It?’ campaign is an effort to showcase the
subtle changes in FasTrack.

Fashion, which is contemporary, and couched
in ‘the desire to live life to the hilt’, is touted as the main thrust of
FasTrack’s branding initiative. The company looked at the different attributes of fashion -
sexy, individualistic, irreverent - but finally decided to build on the ‘work
hard, play hard’ platform. It reflects the balanced attitude of the youth
today.

The company has backed the campaign by
creating a range of aspirational products targeted at this group. To the
company, new fashion centers around shapes such as rounds, ovals and squares; colors in terms of
leather straps, dials and textures; and material such as metal, leather,
hybrids, silicon or synthetic. For instance, FasTrack’s latest offering has
quite a few square models in an array of colors, and the materials used include
new age supplies such as silicon and synthetics. If FasTrack is on a customer,
it must form an impression and make others ask about it. In terms of product
attributes, FasTrack is identified as bold, bright, elegant and as something
that stands out. In its new avatar, FasTrack will reach out to the customers
differently from the way Titan does it.

Its media plan covers television music
channels, select magazines and a significant online presence. On the retailing
front, it hopes to be present in youth hangouts, which include the leading
music shops, and also in some Internet cafes. This is apart from leveraging
Titan’s extensive retail network covering about 92 cities and urban centers in
the country.

The company says it has spotted a distinct
opportunity as most products in the fashion segment carry a price tag between
Rs 3,500 and Rs 7,500. This is not within the first-time reach of many. Titan
is expected to pitch hard in the price bracket ranging between Rs 1,000 and Rs
2,500. It also enables the target - young customers, mostly in the SEC A and
SEC B segments, to mull new purchases to keep pace with changing fashion. The
ownership levels are higher among young Indians, especially in SEC A & A1
segments, and many already own more than one watch at any point in time.

Sales have picked up and FasTrack is growing
on the branded curve. Meanwhile, Titan may allow more product categories under
its umbrella brand to acquire a more decisive role as sub-brands. Nebula, a
gold watch in the luxury segment, may follow suit. FasTrack is a pointer that
Titan is ready to correct its branding strategies and follow market dynamics.